“In civilized life it has at last become possible for large numbers of people to pass from the cradle to the grave without ever having had a pang of genuine fear. Many of us need an attack of mental disease to teach us the meaning of the word.” William James.

We have all heard the seemingly discriminating remarks that fear is normal and abnormal, and that normal fear is to be regarded as a friend, while abnormal fear should be destroyed as an enemy.

The fact is that no so called normal fear can be named which has not been clearly absent in some people who have had every cause therefore. If you will run over human history in your mind, or look about yea in the present life, you will find here and there persons who, in situations or before objects which ought, as any fearful soul will insist, to inspire the feeling of at least normal self-protecting fear, are nevertheless wholly without the feeling. They possess every feeling and thought demanded except fear. The idea of self-preservation is as strongly present as with the most abjectly timid or terrified, but fear they do not know. This fearless awareness of fear suggesting conditions may be due to several causes. It may result from constitutional make-up, or from long continued training or habituation, or from religious ecstasy, or from a perfectly calm sense of spiritual selfhood which is unhurtable, or from the action of very exalted reason. Whatever the explanation, the fact remains: the very causes which excite fear in most of us, merely appeal, with such people, if at all. to the instinct of self-preservation and to reason, the thought-element of the soul which makes for personal peace and wholeness.

Banish all fear

It is on such considerations that I have come to hold that all real fear-feeling should and may be banished from our life, and that what we call “normal fear” should be substituted in our language by “instinct” or by “reason,” the element of fear being dropped altogether.

“Everyone can testify that the psychical state called fear consists of mental representations of certain painful results” (James). The mental representations may be very faint as such, but the idea of hurt to self is surely present. If, then, it can be profoundly believed that the real self cannot be hurt; if the reason can be brought to consider vividly and believingly all quieting considerations; if the self can be held consciously in the assurance that the White Life surrounds the true self, and is surely within that self, and will suffer “no evil to come nigh,” while all the instincts of self preservation may be perfectly active, fear itself must be removed “as far as the east is from the west.”

These are the ways, then, in which any occasion for fear may be divided:

As a warning and as a maker of panic. But let us say that the warning should be understood as given to reason, that fear need not appear at all, and that the panic is perfectly useless pain. With these discrimination’s in mind, we may now go on to a preliminary study of fear.

Preliminary study of fear

Fear is (a) an impulse, (b) a habit, (c) a disease.

Fear, as it exists in man, is a make-believe of sanity, a creature of the imagination, a state of insanity.

Furthermore, fear is, now of the nerves, now of the mind, now of the moral consciousness.

The division depends upon the point of view. What is commonly called normal fear should give place to reason, using the word to cover instinct as well as thought. From the correct point of view all fear is an evil so long as entertained.

Whatever its manifestations, wherever its apparent location, fear is a psychic state, of course, reacting upon the individual in several ways: as, in the nerves, in mental moods, in a single impulse, in a chronic habit, in a totally unbalanced condition. The reaction has always a good intention, meaning, in each case, “Take care! Danger!” You will see that this is so if you will look for a moment at three comprehensive kinds of fear fear of self, fear for self, fear for others. Fear of self is indirectly fear for self danger. Fear for others signifies foresensed or forepictured distress to self because of anticipated misfortune to others. I often wonder whether, when we fear for others, it is distress to self or hurt to them that is most emphatically in our thought.

Fear, then, is usually regarded as the soul’s danger signal. But the true signal is instinctive and thoughtful reason.

Even instinct and reason, acting as warning, may perform their duty abnormally, or assume abnormal proportions. And then we have the feeling of fear. The normal warning is induced by actual danger apprehended by mind in a state of balance and self-control. Normal mind is always capable of such warning. There are but two ways in which so-called normal fear, acting in the guise of reason, may be annihilated: by the substitution of reason for fear, and by the assurance of the white life.

Let it be understood, now, that by normal fear is here meant normal reason real fear being denied place and function altogether. Then we may say that such action of reason is a benefactor to man. It is, with pain and weariness, the philanthropy of the nature of things within us.

One person said: “Tired? No such word in my house!” Now this cannot be a sound and healthy attitude. Weariness, at a certain stage of effort, is a signal to stop work. When one becomes so absorbed in labor as to lose consciousness of the feeling of weariness, he has issued a “hurry call” on death. I do not deny that the soul may cultivate a sublime sense of buoyancy and power; rather do I urge you to seek that beautiful condition; but I hold that when a belief or a hallucination refuses to permit you to hear the warning of nerves and muscles, Nature will work disaster inevitably. Let us stand for the larger liberty which is joyously free to take advantage of everything Nature may offer for true well-being. There is a partial liberty which tries to realize itself by denying various realities as real; there is a higher liberty which really realizes itself by conceding such realities as real and by using or disusing them as occasion may require in the interest of the self at its best. I hold this to be true wisdom: to take advantage of everything which evidently promises good to the self, without regard to this or that theory, and freely to use all things, material or immaterial, reasonable or spiritual. I embrace your science or your method; but I beg to ignore your bondage to philosophy or to consistency. So I say that to normal health the weary-sense is a rational command to replenish exhausted nerves and muscles.

It is not liberty, it is not healthful, to declare, “There is no pain!”

Pain does exist, whatever you affirm, and your affirmation that it does not is proof that it does exist, for why (and how) declare the non-existence of that which actually is non-existent? But if you say, “As a matter of fact I have pain, but I am earnestly striving to ignore it, and to cultivate thought-health so that the cause of pain may be removed,” that is sane and beautiful. This is the commendable attitude of the Bible character who cried: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” To undertake swamping pain with a cloud of psychological fog that is to turn anarchist against the good government of Nature. By pain Nature informs the individual that he is somewhere out of order. This warning is normal. The feeling becomes abnormal in the mind when imagination twangs the nerves with reiterated irritation, and Will, confused by the discord and the psychic chaos, cowers and shivers with fear.

I do not say there is no such thing as fear. Fear does exist. But it exists in your life by your permission only, not because it is needful as a warning against “evil.”

Fear is induced by unduly magnifying actual danger, or by conjuring up fictitious dangers through excessive and misdirected psychical reactions. This also may be taken as a signal of danger, but it is a falsely-intentioned witness, for it is not needed, is hostile to the individual because it threatens self-control and it absorbs life’s forces in useless and destructive work when they ought to be engaged in creating values.

So Now That We Understand FEAR How Do We Deal with it as Entrepreneurs?

That project your working on but afraid of the results you need to confront the fear and think of the worst thing to happen. Remember my saying “fear is the favorite son of LIE.” So let’s address where your fears LIE. Because “Fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real”

1. I could fail.
2. The worst thing is that no one buys it.
3. You are ridiculed and or disrespected.
4. Your so called friends and family tell you “I told you so you should keep (or get one) your job.”
5. Someone will try to discredit you as someone who doesn’t know what they are doing.

OK so lets go over each

BECOMING FEARLESS!

Its important that we educate ourselves! Nothing assassinates fear like an education. “Napoleon Hill defined an “educated person” as, not necessarily a person with a lot of general or specialized knowledge, but one who has so developed the faculties of their mind that they can acquire anything they want, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.” – Bob Proctor

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The greatest form of failure is never trying

I could fail: The REAL secret is that we ALL fail! But we never take that into serious thought. How many times did we fall before we could walk? How many times did we stumble over our words before we could speak? We fail everyday. But yet we still go on. Did you always put your clothes on right the first time? Did you groom yourself perfectly every morning? Have you had experience with your hands for years yet dropped something? Were you late no matter how hard you tried to make that appointment?

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To successful people failure is the thing that happened BEFORE they won -Darren

The worst thing is that no one buys it: The great part about the internet is that you can test and retest literally at next to no cost.  There could be several reasons. Price, deal, your sales page etc. Either way I GUARANTEE you it is not the end of the world. You planned to work so now work your plan.

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It your not a SOB to someone you’re not doing it right - Darren

You are ridiculed and or disrespected: welcome to the club! Hey they talked about Jesus so who are you? I personally get hate social media and emails EVERYDAY. Everyone has been teased

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The worst form of cowardice is listening to everyone but yourself – Darren

NEVER let society convince you of who you are – Darren

Your so called friends and family tell you “I told you so you should keep (or get one) your job.: Realize that people may love you without believing in your dreams. So things didn’t work out the way you wanted. Keep moving on and as the saying goes fail forward and fail fast. The quicker you get the mistakes out the way the quicker you get to the success. The point here is that if your fear of what others thing or say is hindering you then you must STOP. Thinking of others and listen to yourself.

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Our Knowledge is Tested Throughout Our Lives. Focus on the test Not the Grade - Darren

Someone will try to discredit you as someone who doesn’t know what they are doing.: They discredited Einstein for 10+ years and his theories. And was utterly shocked that this non educated so called scientist had these unproven idea’s. Frankly people will call you names everyday of your life. But their words mean nothing. Remember everyone is attacked on the Internet. Again welcome to the family. Even when you THINK you have “made it” your credibility will be attacked.

False Evidence Appearing Real: How real is the false evidence appearing in your mind?

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